


The One Where Steve Lies About A Break Up But It's Okay, He's Got A Plan

by ThePandoricaWillOpen



Series: Alternative Lives, Infinite Possibilities [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Break Up, M/M, Mutual Pining, Past Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Pining Bucky Barnes, Pining Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 04:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7743526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePandoricaWillOpen/pseuds/ThePandoricaWillOpen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The One where Steve suffers a break up and Bucky is a good bro. Until the truth comes out, then Bucky might be more than just a good bro. One Shot Modern AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One Where Steve Lies About A Break Up But It's Okay, He's Got A Plan

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Peggy breaks up with Steve and he turns to his BFF Bucky in his time of need. Bucky wants to desperately tell Steve he’s loved him since high school but this so isn't the time.

Sometimes Bucky thought back and wondered when his life became so fucked up. Actually he didn’t have to wonder, he fucking knew when his world turned upside down. It was when he was seven years old and he accidentally walked between a bully in his grade beating up a tiny kid who just wouldn’t stay down. It had taken all of Bucky’s strength not to pummel the damn bully with all he had, the poor kid had obviously learned whatever lesson the bully wanted to teach him. He didn’t need his teeth knocked out, his muddied clothes and bloodied lip should have been enough. And yet it had taken Bucky (and Natasha, but he didn’t like to remember her in this particular memory as being the one who _actually_ saved the day) to stop the kid from getting killed.

Afterwards the damned punk slapped Bucky’s hand away when he tried to reach for him and said, “I had ‘im on the ropes,” with the softest voice Bucky had ever heard come out of a kid who had almost died. When a blue eye looked at him, the other eye being swollen shut from having taken a hit, Bucky knew he was done for.

And now here he is, a fifteen years later wondering why the hell Steve had sounded so sad over the phone. Bucky had dropped what he was doing and had rushed over to Steve’s apartment. He’d only been watching Netflix and they did live less than a ten minute walk from one another but even if he had been in a meeting with the damned president, Bucky would have rushed over just to see Steve’s eyes wrinkle at the side when he opened the door.

The building that Steve lived in was lot better off than Bucky’s building. Steve’s had an elevator and a laundry room while Bucky was lucky to get warm water during July. Bucky knew that, if he asked, Steve would probably let him move in. They lived with each other enough during college that living together would not be too hard. They knew each other’s tendencies already and routines. Like Steve leaving his sketchpads on every surface of every lit room and Bucky’s habit of leaving his shoes around the strangest of places. Steve liked to get up at the crack of dawn and sing in the shower. Bucky didn't wear socks, ever, and couldn't cook to save his life. They had dealt with it in college, they could rock living together.

Except, Steve had Peggy. Peggy didn’t like Bucky the way that everyone else in the world liked Bucky. Peggy seemed to be only one to see through his “tough guy” act as Steve called it and that unsettled him. The way her perfect eyebrows arch whenever he did something that she disapproved of or thought went against his character made him feel like a child being scolded by his older sister. Steve loved it. Loved that he wasn’t the only one to see past Bucky’s rough exterior. And he loved her even more for getting under Bucky’s skin in a way that he couldn’t.

Essentially, Steve was an asshole who liked to see Bucky suffer under the glare of his perfect girlfriend. Bucky, on the other hand, hated feeling so exposed.

So living together, being around Peggy more than his daily dose, was not something Bucky was keen on. No matter how much he might want to live with Steve, he did not want to live with Peggy as well.

He takes the stairs up to Steve’s apartment, shooting him a text saying he’s coming up and, with perfect timing, Steve swings the door open just as Bucky arrives at his door.

“Hey,” Bucky says a little breathless. “What’s the big emergency?”

Steve rolls his eyes. “I never said it was an emergency.”

Bucky walks in, clapping Steve on the shoulder as he passes. He eyes the pizza on the counter, going straight for it, and asks, “Oh, no? Then why’d you get pizza?”

“Whatcha mean? I like pizza.”

“Pizza is your go to food when you’re stressed, Stevie.” Bucky takes a bite, chewing slowly as Steve goes around the kitchen counter and gets two beers from the fridge. He pops them open and offers one to Bucky. He takes sip, washing down the pizza and then levels Steve a look. “What’s wrong?”

“Peggy broke up with me,” Steve says worrying the beer between his hands. He looks down at the bottle as if it’s the most important thing in the room. Bucky reaches out and takes the bottle, pushing the box of pizza to the side. Steve looks up and whispers, “She’s leaving me, Buck.”

“What happened?” Steve sags forward on the counter, his head on his crossed arms and sighs. Bucky rounds the counter, puts one hand on Steve’s back meant to comfort him and ends up with an armful of Steve. He wraps his arms around Steve’s waist, pulling him close and rubbing his back, feeling Steve’s heart racing against his chest. “Talk to me, Stevie.”

So Steve does. Wrapped up in their embrace, Steve tells Bucky about feeling like Peggy was meant to do better than him. Peggy has aspirations, she had ambitions to be more than she was now and Steve, well, Steve just wanted to teach art. He was an art teacher, it was what he wanted to be since he was a young boy when he and Bucky had decided that they were going to be best friend forever.

But Peggy - Peggy dreamt of bigger things. She wanted to help the world, to protect those who had no voice, to be a shield against the evils of the world. Peggy wanted to be more than a junior partner in a prestigious law firm. She wanted to fight corruption, not help the corrupted get off. That’s what she’d told Steve.

“She doesn’t want to be married to an art teacher,” Steve says against Bucky’s shoulder. He felt a few tears land on his shirt and pulls Steve closer. “She doesn’t want to marry an art teacher from Brooklyn.”

Bucky pulls away from Steve, looks him straight in the eye and says, “then fuck her.” Steve groans, hating the profanity, but smiles at Bucky. His blue eyes wrinkle at the side and Bucky considers that a win. He smiles back, rubbing Steve’s arms. “Sorry but she’s missing out on being with the best guy in Brooklyn. Serious, who wouldn’t want to hear you snore every night or wake up to you singing offkey in the shower after running across the country.”

“I don’t sing offkey,” Steve said with a roll of his eyes. “You just don't know how to appreciate my singing.”

“Oh, I appreciate it. Just not at five in the morning.” Bucky brings his hand up to Steve’s cheek and adds, “I appreciate you more than you know. If she can’t do the same, then she doesn’t deserve you. If she’s not willing to compromise who she is for you, she’s got no right to ask you to do the same.”

Steve leans into the touch, bringing up his own hand to cover Bucky’s. “It’s not even just about me being a teacher, Buck. She asked me to go with her.” Bucky let his hand fall away, Steve’s hand follows his and holds on to it. “Said I could be a teacher over there, a compromise of sorts.”

“That’s not - no.” Bucky shakes his head.

“That’s what I said. I told her I couldn’t leave Brooklyn.”

 _I couldn’t leave you_ was left unsaid. Bucky could tell, could see it in the way Steve’s eyes softened. Bucky takes a step back, letting Steve’s hand go and putting some distance between them. He reaches for his beer, takes a sip to calm his nerves. This could be the moment that Bucky has been waiting for since he hit puberty in high school and learned that the way that his heart raced whenever Steve was nearby was not normal friend behaviour.

Steve continues to look at him, looking for something in Bucky face or waiting for a reply. Bucky’s scared of opening his mouth, scared that the words he’s held in for so long will just burst from his lips. Steve is vulnerable right now. It is not the time to be confessing anything to him. Especially not when Peggy just broke up with him. He needs time to process, Bucky decides, time to move on from Peggy before he could even dare approach the subject.

“W-what happened after that?” Bucky asks, going back around the counter to put some more space between them. He gets a slice of pizza and takes a bite. He leans forward his elbows on the counter and chews, his eyes just a little to the left of Steve’s shoulder.

Steve shakes his head. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“Netflix?” Bucky suggests before taking another bite of pizza. He picks up the box of pizza without waiting for a reply. He plops down on the couch, reaching for the remote control and switching on the Playstation. By the time it turns on and selects the Netflix app, Steve has sat down on the couch with a beer cradled in his hands. Bucky selects Steve’s go-to Netflix movie: Mulan.

* * *

A sequel, a few Kitchen Nightmare episodes and several beers later has Bucky and Steve lightly snoring on the couch together. Steve’s head is on Bucky’s shoulder, his arm around Bucky’s waist with a serene look on his face. It was in that exact position that Peggy Carter found them in. Bucky wakes up when he hears her cough, blinking away the sleep that only Gordon Ramsey’s voice could lull them into.

“Shit,” he whispers when he sees her with her arms folded and one delicate eyebrow raised. He tries to move away but Steve’s arms hold on to his waist. He shakes Steve’s shoulders. “Steve, fucking hell, Steve wake up. Peggy’s here. Steve!”

Steve groans awake, tilting his head upwards and rubbing his nose on Bucky’s neck. He blinks awake and meets Bucky’s eyes with a tender smile. “Hey… Buck.” Bucky nods to the left and Steve looks, his eyes landing on Peggy. Immediately, he pulls away from Bucky, standing up quickly on shaky legs. “Peg? W-what - what are you, um, doing here?”

“Interrupting, it seems,” Peggy says walking away from the two men. She rounds the couch towards the front door and adds, “I’m here for the rest of my things. And to return some of yours.”

Bucky stands, patting his pockets to make sure he had his keys and phone. He turns to Steve. “I should probably-”

“- No, dont!” Steve interrupts. “Stay. Please.”

“I think you two need to talk,” Bucky says standing up. He runs his hand through his hair. Steve reaches out and touches his arm, eyes pleading. Bucky sighs already knowing that he would be staying. “I really should go, you know.”

Steve smiles. “Thanks, Buck.” Behind them, Peggy puts a box of Steve’s belonging on the kitchen table. Steve turns to Peggy, letting go of his hold on Bucky. He walks to the table, briefly looking inside the box. “I, um, I didn’t get a chance to pack your things. I’ll, um, go do that now.”

“No doubt you two had a busy afternoon,” Peggy says, looking at Bucky, with a sad smile. She sees Steve hesitate and adds, “We’ll be fine.”

Steve looks between Peggy and Bucky before retreating into the bedroom to collect Peggy’s things. Bucky coughs, meeting Peggy’s eyes with a smile of his own.

“How’ve you-”

“It didn’t take you very long, did it?” Peggy interrupts.

Bucky bit his lower lip. _Today is one of those days that no one fucking lets me finish a sentence before interrupting_ , he thought. He comes around the couch, looking towards the way Steve went before asking, “What are you talking about?”

“You know very well what I am talking about.”

He takes a step towards Peggy, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t. Or else I wouldn’t have asked: what are you talking about.”

“I’m talking about your feelings for Steve,”

Bucky takes a deep breath. “What? He’s my best friend, that’s all.”

“Best friends don’t touch each other the way you two do. Best friends don’t call in the middle of the night to talk until they fall asleep. Best friends don’t take days off work because the other is sick with a cough.”

“We’ve known each other since -”

“Yes, I know, since you were seven years old. Everybody knows. Steve tells the story to everyone he meets like it’s a goddam romance novel.”

“He's like my brother,” Bucky says rolling his eyes. He's heard all this before. From his partners and friends to family and his sisters. They’ve been told they act like an old married couple for as long as Bucky can remember. He always loved hearing it, that it wasn’t just Bucky who felt like they could belong together. He shakes his head and says, “You're the one that's leaving, Peggy.”

“Not so far that Steve had to act like I was ripping him out of the century and throwing him seventy years into the future. D.C isn't all that far.”

“Brooklyn is his home and - wait. I thought you were going back home. That you wanted to move back to England.”

“Is that what he said?”

“Well, no, I just assumed. I don’t think - it doesn’t matter. You’re still asking him to leave the only home he’s ever had.”

“I didn’t just ask him out of the blue,” Peggy says, taking a step towards Bucky. “We’ve been talking about it for weeks. We had a plan to move in together, we had minor details to work out. But the moment it came down to actually leaving Brooklyn, it was like talking to a different man.”

“You know how he gets. He’s too stubborn for his own good.”

“I’ve always know he was a hot headed bull of a man. I just never thought I would see it for myself until we broke up.”

“How did you think he would feel?” Bucky asks. He decides to ask Steve about the break up in more detail when he sees Peggy wipe her eyes carefully. She was in a lot more pain that Steve, who was humming to himself a few rooms down, was. “You did just break up with him.”

“ _He_ broke up with _me,_ James. A week ago. He lied to _you_.” Peggy shakes her head and asks softly, “At least I’m not the only he lied to.”

She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment. Bucky wants to reach out, show comfort of some kind but refrains. She's one of the strongest women he knows, she would probably brush off his touch anyway. He looks down at the floor and waits.

He can hear things being thrown, rummaged through in the next room. Steve's soft murmuring as he packs the last few items that belong to Peggy Carter, the woman he had been with for four years.

They had met in college, Peggy was two years ahead of them and was doing a tour of the campus. It was like they were meant to be. Bucky couldn't even believe how good they fit together, like pieces of a puzzle. Headstrong, immovable forces, both too stubborn to back down from a fight, they made quite the pair. Bucky thought they would last forever, grow old and have a love story for the ages. He would be there too. Right on the side lines, watching Steve with the same goofy look he was told he always had whenever Steve was around. But this was Steve's and Peggy's love story and Bucky didn't fit into that.

And now, somehow he had a part in it. In it's destruction. And he needed to know how and why.

“You should have seen the look of absolute horror when I told him about D.C.” She chuckles. “I had everything planned out. Everything except Steve’s absolute devotion to you.”

“I didn’t - he didn’t tell me that, Peg,” Bucky whispers. “I don’t want to hold him back.”

“You aren’t, Bucky,” she replies with a soft smile, meeting his eyes. “His feelings for you are.”

It was in that moment that Steve walked back into the room, a box cradled in his arms. Bucky takes a step away from Peggy, running his hands through his hair and trying desperately to make sense of the situation.

“I think I got everything,” he says not yet looking away from the items inside the box. “If you think anything is missing -” he looks up and sees Bucky. “Hey, what’s wrong? Are you okay, Buck?”

Steve brushes past him, putting the box on the counter by Peggy and comes back to Bucky’s side, his hands cupping his face much like Bucky had done earlier. Bucky refused to meet his eyes, taking a step back from Steve and turning away. He exhales and inhales, counts to ten and then back to zero, trying to get his racing heart from popping out of his chest.

Steve has feelings for Bucky.

Steve didn’t want to leave Bucky in Brooklyn.

Steve gave up the most important relationship in his life to stay in Brooklyn.

With Bucky.

If Peggy and Steve were an unsinkable ship, then Bucky was the iceberg they had just hit head on.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Peggy pick up the box from the table. She says something to Steve, or maybe to Bucky, he's not sure because all he can hear is the sound of his heartbeat. When the door closes, leaving Steve and Bucky alone in the living room, Bucky turns back. Steve is looking at him, his eyes full of concern, his hands twitch at his side as if he's holding himself back from reaching out and holding Bucky again. He doesn't know what he would do if Steve tries to touch him again.

“Buck?”

“Do you have feelings for me?”

“W-what?”

“You heard me. Don’t make me ask again, Steve.”

Steve looks to the door and then shoves his hands in his pocket. His eyes on the floor, he asks, “What - what did Peggy tell you?”

“More than you, apparently. Like you broke up is because of me.”

“Is - is that what she said? Because it’s not. She’s leaving -”

“- To fucking D.C. That’s like a three hour train ride. I thought you were leaving the country or something!” Bucky takes a deep breath and looks at Steve. “I thought you were - you lied to me.”

“I never said where-”

“A lie by omission is still a fucking lie, Steve.”

“I didn’t lie,” Steve says adamantly. “I would never lie to you, Buck.”

“But you did. These last few hours have been a lie. I came over because of a lie. You said Peggy broke up with you. You said she didn’t want to marry a school teacher. You said she asked you to go with her, out of the blue. But you’d been planning it, she said you’d talked it over for weeks before you broke up with her a _fucking week ago._ ”

Steve clenches his jaw, looking away from Bucky. He opens his mouth as if to say something but then closes it. He shrugs and says, “I didn’t mean to-”

“Is she right?”

“Yeah, we’d talked about it and-”

“No,” Bucky interrupts, taking a step towards Steve. He takes a deep breath, trying to settle his racing heart before asking:  “Is she right about your feelings for me?”

Steve looks up from the floor and meets Bucky’s eyes. Bucky can see the terror hiding behind his blue eyes, he could his shoulders rising and falling as if he just finished running a mini-marathon. He can feel the way Steve inhaled and exhaled as if the oxygen in the room was running low. Steve was nervous.

“Don’t lie to me,” Bucky whispers, letting himself show the terror he himself felt as he waits for Steve’s answer. “Please don’t lie to me.”

Almost soundlessly, Steve says, “yes.”

Bucky shakes his head, turning away from Steve. This was what he wanted and yet, Bucky feels betrayed, he feels like a fucking goon for getting between Peggy and Steve.

“I had a plan,” Steve adds as if that will make everything better.

“You - you had a plan,” Bucky deadpans, turning around. Steve’s jaw is clenched, one hand on his hip, the other on his forehead. “What kind of plan?”

“I don’t know, it was a stupid plan.”

“Considering you made the plan, of course it’s going to be stupid. But what kind of plan was this?”

“I - was going, um, I was going to woo you,” he admits, dropping his hands to the side and looking right at Bucky. Just as stubborn as ever.

“Woo me?” Steve nods. Bucky chuckles, running his hands through his hair for the hundredth time. “You - you were going to fucking try and woo me? Like some romantic comedy shit?”

“Well, I didn’t want it to be shit but yeah, yeah that’s what -”

“You’re an idiot, you know that.” He turns, this time walking towards the door. Over his shoulder he calls out, “I can’t do this right now.”

“Coney Island, in case you were wondering,” Steve says just as Bucky reaches for the door. Bucky turns, confused and waits for him to continue. Steve steps closer, his hands in his pocket, his shoulders hunched forward. “My eighteenth birthday when you took me to Coney Island for the day and then we spent the night watching the fireworks. That’s - that’s when I knew.”

Bucky blinks, his heart going crazy in his chest. He isn’t even sure his lungs are working right now. “Knew what?”

“That I was in love with you.” Steve clenches his jaw.

“That was - that was a long time ago.”

“I know.”

Bucky leans against the door, his hands behind his back. He bites his lower lip, his eyebrows scrunching as he thinks about that night. Warmth spreads from his chest to the rest of his body, remembering how close they had leaned against each other on that patch of grass in the park.

Grass and sticks tickled his bare arms but it didn’t matter, not when Steve looked at him with his wide blue eyes and whispered that it had been the best day of his life. That’s all Bucky had ever wanted from Steve, for him to be happy, for everyday to be the best day of his life - with or without him at his side.

And now it turned out that the feeling was mutual. Bucky didn't know how to process that. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do, except what actors always did in the movies. He could take three steps forward, grab Steve by his perfect jaw and pull him into a kiss.

But this wasn’t a romantic comedy, this was real life.

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“Why didn’t _you_?”

“Why do you _think_?” Bucky hisses. “I didn’t want to loose my best friend over a stupid crush.”

Steve steps forward, hands slipping out of his pockets. Bucky lets Steve touch his cheek with his right hand while his left sits on his hip, gripping him as if he was scared Bucky would run away. Bucky leans forwards until their foreheads touch and, like the same movies he’s been cursing throughout this entire day, they look into each other’s eyes.

“But this isn’t just some stupid crush,” Steve whispers. “This is real, Buck. It just took me a long time to realize it.”

Bucky doesn’t reply with words. He closes the space between them, pressing his lips to Steve’s. Steve is still for one second and then Bucky feels his mouth opening, his tongue running the length of his lower lip. He gasps, like a fucking romantic comedy he thinks to himself, and Steve dives in, licking into his mouth like a starving man. Bucky’s hands come to pull Steve closer, one on his cheek and the other pulling on his waist. He feels Steve had travel from his cheek to his neck, tilting his head back, feels the hand at his waist gripping him tight, their hips practically melted together.

When they break for air, they pull back only enough to leave a sliver of space between their lips. Steve smiles shyly, cocking an eyebrow and then crushes their lips together again. This time, god, this time Bucky feels the hand at his waist slipping under his shirt and making contact with his skin. Steve makes a noise at the back of his throat, fingers trailing the expanse of Bucky’s stomach, touching him with hot fingers.

Bucky pushes Steve away with one hand on his chest and the other getting his hand out from under his shirt. Steve whines softly, his eyes wide and just a touch hurt.

They are both breathing hard when Bucky says, “Are you sure about this?”

“Yes.”

“Steve…”

“Are _you_ , Buck?”

Bucky looks down at Steve lips, red and wet from their kiss, and then up at his blue eyes. He smirks, wrapping one hand at the back of Steve’s neck and says, “You’re stuck with me now, pal.”

“Promise?”

“Till the end of the line, Steve.”

Okay, so maybe not  _that_ fucked up. 

 


End file.
